With one woman dying every 12 minutes due to pregnancy-related health issues in India, the government today launched a campaign to provide free and comprehensive antenatal care on the 9th day of every month. Under the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA), pregnant women will be provided special antenatal check-up in their second or third trimester at government health care facilities.

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These services include ultrasound, blood and urine tests, in addition to routine antenatal check-up. The primary objective of the programme is to identify and initiate follow-up actions on high-risk pregnancies to reduce maternal mortality rate (MMR) and infant mortality rate (IMR).

The campaign aims at providing free antenatal care to about three crore women across the country. 184 priority districts have been identified for greater focus on antenatal care.

The programme will rely on a network of private medical practitioners who can provide their services at a government hospital located close to them.

Keeping in view the objective, a web portal as well as a mobile application were inaugurated which will facilitate engagement with private sector doctors and encourage them to volunteer for the campaign.

Obstetricians, radiologists and physicians who wish to volunteer on the 9th of every month can register themselves on the website or the mobile application. Thereafter, the chief medical officer of the district to which the volunteer belongs to will get in touch with the doctor concerned.

At the launch of the programme, Health and Family Welfare Minister JP Nadda said, “This isn’t ‘health for all’ but ‘health by all’. We want to make this into a movement.

“Our pace of reduction of infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate is better than the rest of the world. However, it is not the time for us to be satisfied. We need to do more and provide better access to medical care in remote areas,” he said.

Director General of Health Services Jagdish Prasad appealed to the doctors to spare a day every month for the cause.

1500 doctors from Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI) have so far pledged their support to the programme, which is also backed by the Indian Medical Association.

According to Dr Gagan Gupta, Senior Health Specialist, UNICEF, “India has made very good progress, India has made better progress than the world. However, India has the second highest MMR in the world. In India, we have 167 maternal deaths per 1,00,000 births. 44,000 women die annually or 120 die per day because of pregnancy-related health issues.”

“But these are preventable deaths which happen because of poor access to health facilities. The aim of the programme is to provide these facilities in the remote corners of the country and monitor women during their pregnancy and flag any health issues they might be suffering from,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had first mooted such a scheme for expectant mothers during his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio broadcast on July 31.

What did NAMO do in 2plus years? Did he build roads,factories,airports,rail lines,power lines, lift millions from poverty and give them better opportunities in life? Yes,he night have done few things. India he represent proudly is not built by him. It's a work of 60 years. Now he is the PM of India . Let us see what he does for india. Currently the fact is industry is in poor condition, job creation is nil, farm sector is in disaster, security situation is bad, Kashmir is ping through worst moment, corruption is same as before. MODI fans has to understand that India is too big and complex to rule for one person and debates a and criticism are very important in democracy.

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Brave Soldier

Nov 4, 2016 at 5:20 pm

He has done a lot of which Congress couldn't do in past 60 yrs. At least he has the will the initiatives and the ideas.
Giving up of LPG subsidies, such a small thing and giving them to the rural poor people, simple and effective.

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Raj V

Nov 5, 2016 at 12:27 am

Good move if implemented by a service minded non-political medical team.